PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The man who set off the pyrotechnics that sparked a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people will be released from prison on March 19, an official at the state corrections department said Tuesday.
Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for the 1980s rock band Great White, has been at the state prison since May 2006 for his role in the fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick. Eight of the victims lived or worked in Connecticut.
More than 200 people also were injured in the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history.
Biechele pleaded guilty two years ago to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter, admitting that he ignited the pyrotechnics without the required permit on the night of Feb. 20, 2003.
He was sentenced to four years in prison and will be released on parole after completing less than half of that sentence.
Kim Avedisian, the parole coordinator for the state Department of Corrections, said there was no schedule for exactly when Biechele would be released on March 19. The former tour manager is from Florida and is being paroled to an out-of-state location, but Avedisian said she did not know where he would be going.
His lawyer, Thomas Briody, declined to comment when asked about his client's plans.
Biechele, 31, has served his sentence in minimum-security and was given a work-release job as a bookkeeper for a nonprofit organization.
The state parole board decided in the fall to release Biechele from prison in March, though it did not set a specific date. When he became eligible for parole last year, he was supported by many victims' relatives who said he had shown genuine remorse and bore less responsibility than Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, the two brothers who owned the club and installed highly flammable soundproofing foam on the building's walls and ceilings.
The Derderians both pleaded no contest in September 2006 to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Michael Derderian was sentenced to four years in prison, and is scheduled to be released on parole in October 2009. Jeffrey Derderian was given a suspended sentence, probation and 500 hours of community service, which he completed last year.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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